Word Games— A Great Way to Start the Day

Even if adieu is considered an English word

Photo by Surendran MP on Unsplash

Do you play word games? I play word games. And these are the games I play: The Mini Crossword, Spelling Bee, Connections, Wordle, Letter Boxed, Spelling Bee, Strands, Spelling Bee (maybe). You might be wondering what’s up with all the spelling bees. I will get to that in a sec.

First I am going to tell you why I play these games. As some of you may recognize, they are all published by the New York Times. The Times publishes other games such as Sudoku, Tiles, and its flagship game The Crossword.

I play the games recited above because they all involve the alphabet. I know The Crossword also involves the alphabet but it is too many letters for me so I leave it be. The Mini is just right. Plus, I don’t enjoy games where one bad answer, whether that be an incorrect letter or two or an entire word, can skew the whole thing and really screw you over.

In addition, I limit myself to the Times’ platform, rather than foraging beyond for more word games, because I have found that playing games can be an inordinate time suck. These games take up enough time. Limiting myself to them is, again, just right.

The order of games recited above is no accident. That is the order in which I play them. I begin with The Mini. Great warm-up. Then I move onto Spelling Bee. If you are not familiar with Spelling Bee, it consists of a grid of seven letters arranged as a hexagon. The idea is to make up as many words as possible of at least four letters with every answer including the letter in the middle. Letters can appear more than once in any answer.

For example, let’s say the letter in the middle is E. The surrounding letters are A, B, C, D, F, and G. The word CABBAGE is a go because it uses the middle letter, E. The word BABA is not, because, although long enough, it does not include the letter E. BABA: I bet you are wondering, Is that a word? Well, yes, it is, according to the Spelling Bee editor. But I can assure you, if you check with the Spelling Bee Community, there is a raging debate about this as well as many other “words.”

As you find editor-approved, rule-conforming words, your score increases. Each word has a value ranging from one for a word with four letters to up to six points for a word using six or more letters. Words that are pangrams, that is, words using all the letters at least once, are worth an additional seven points.

As your score increases, you move up in the rankings. First comes Beginner, followed by Good Start, then Moving Up, and so on. The goal is to reach Genius. Rather, I should say the ostensible goal is to reach Genius. Beyond Genius there is an unlisted, insider-only level called Queen Bee. You attain this by finding ALL of the words the letters can make.

Now and then I can get to Genius on my own. Other times I need the Community and clues submitted by other players. Every day I try to hit Queen Bee, and I could not do it without the clues submitted by a couple of other players who are always among the first to post after the game drops at 3 A. M. EST. I don’t know what these people do for a living or how they came to be so clever and erudite but let me tell you they are next-level word nerds.

Now with Spelling Bee out of the way, let’s move on to the other games. First up, Connections. Connections consists of a four-by-four grid of words. The idea is to group the 16 words into groups of four words each where the words in each group relate to each other. If you don’t follow me, that’s okay, because it doesn’t matter for my purposes.

The real reason I play Connections is to get my Wordle starter word. Let’s consider that game now. In Wordle, you get six chances to guess a five-letter word, with some exceptions (for example, no proper nouns). The most common starter word is ADIEU, probably for all the vowels. I never use ADIEU 1. Because I think it is a French word and belongs to France, 2. I like to change things up, and 3. I think it makes no difference to your chances of success whether your starter word has four vowels or one. Therefore, I pick at random a five-letter word from my round with Connections.

At this point in my morning’s word-gaming, my system could use a flush. I take care of that with Letter Boxed. Letter Boxed consists of a square with three letters per side, for a total of 12 letters. Starting with any letter, players must connect letters to make words of at least three letters. The goal is to use all the letters at least once in as few words as possible, equal to or below the target number set by the game’s editor.

For example, if the target number is four but it took you six attempts to use all the letters, fail. Try again. In its way, this game is kind of brainless, and that’s why I use it to have a bit of a rest. However, when I first started playing this game, I overlooked the requirement of having to use up all the letters within the target number of words. Connecting all the letters in, say, a dozen words instead of the target of five (or six), I thought, God, how easy is this?! Then I realized my oversight.

Refreshed from Letter Boxed, I return to Spelling Bee. I usually go from Spelling Bee to Connections once I get to Genius or close enough (Amazing is the level just below Genius). After Letter Boxed, if I have already reached Genius, I am gunning for Queen Bee. Once I hit that target, I turn to Strands.

I don’t really like Strands. Well, no, that’s not true. It’s okay. Strands is a word-search game of letters in a six-by-eight grid. Every day a theme unites the words to find. For example, if the day’s theme is Breakfast, words to find might include BACON, EGGS, BISCUITS, and so on. There are a few more rules and limitations but I think you get the idea.

I don’t know why I am so unenthusiastic about Strands. It could be the name. Strands? Strands of what? Letters? Duh, it’s a word-search game. What else are there going to be strands of? I think Letter Boxed is a real clunker of a moniker, very inelegant, but its name doesn’t bother me.

Maybe it’s the imprecision of Strands’ description: Find Hidden Word and Uncover the Day’s Theme. Players are not “finding” words. We are connecting letters. Because we are not finding words, how can we uncover them? We can’t. We are creating them. I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on the problem. So why do I play the game? Because it’s there? Because I can? Yes, and yes. Because it is a way to pass the time, but not too much time: just right.

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